Travel is at its best and worst an adventure. It’s also hard work. Recently, we went to the largest Starbucks in the entire world (which opened in Shanghai in December) and two taxi drivers, a passerby, and Google Maps didn’t know where it was, yet it was right off a major metro stop. This Starbucks is practically the size of a convention center and hard to miss. It took us 90 minutes, rain-soaked shoes, and standing in line before we finally enjoyed our espresso in the grandest Starbucks of all.
Patience, flexibility, and diligence are necessary traits for successful travel.
Our family has just returned from an epic trip through Southeast Asia while on a school break for Chinese New Year. You will read in coming posts of the happy results of our efforts. But to each happy result there are weeks of planning, unexpected mishaps that require quick thinking, and plan B’s, C’s, or even D’s that occurred to make it successful. Sometimes there are experiences that you would rather have missed. But in the end, it’s all part of the adventure of travel. One of these “adventures” happened at the beginning of our trip.
Our flight arrived in Thailand late in the evening, delayed, and in a rainstorm. After clearing through customs at the small airport on the southern Thailand peninsula we walked into the lobby and scanned placards held in front of waiting drivers to find our name. Nobody had a sign for us, despite my prior arrangement with the hotel. I let out a small frustrated sigh and think no matter, we’ll get a taxi. Except wait, it’s a 45-minute drive and nobody wants to go there in the dark of night, in a rainstorm. This happens a lot more than you would expect – drivers refusing to take you places. Well, not downright refusing, just wanting to do it at an elevated cost. Looking at the clock, we swallow our pride and pay the extra fee and get into a spacious SUV for the ride.
Before leaving the airport I had purchased a local SIM card for my phone. (Traveler Tip: In country SIM cards in Asia are extremely cheap and work great for on the go connectivity.) But as with any technology, sometimes it doesn’t work as expected. While Marco and I are in the backseat reworking the SIM card connection, the driver swerves in and out of Thailand traffic (there are no discernible traffic laws in any country in Asia it seems) and we head off into the jungle night.
We arrive at our hotel, a quaint and low budget series of bungalows set right on the beach. Quickly checking into our room, we begin to settle in. It isn’t the Four Seasons, but who needs that when you get a charmingly rustic tin roofed bungalow right next to the beach for a week at the price of single night for most US hotels. We are even charmed by a frog that appeared on the inside of our room window. Having seen geckos and lizards everywhere on other trips to the tropics we consider it somewhat normal and are unduly surprised.
The surprise came a little while later, as we hear Janna scream “Oh my God, that thing just bit me!” We look across the bungalow to see a large black scorpion with its tail raised in strike mode next to Janna’s foot. I scream back, “That thing bit you?!!” She screams, “Yes!” I shove my rising panic down and start to think quickly about how to get help. She backs away from it and I tell her to come with me quickly – – we need to get immediate help. She frets about what shirt she should wear. I grab her and tell her it doesn’t matter what she wears, she is going in her pajamas. Marco flees the room with us– fear for his sister and zero desire to stay in the room to find more jungle creatures pushing him out- while Jeff stays behind to battle with the scorpion and kill it.
Janna, Marco, and I run to the front desk which is part of the open-air restaurant, activities center, lounge, and coffee shop that is full of guests dining or playing games and drinking beers. I barge into the kitchen and yell “My daughter’s been bit by a scorpion and needs help!” The manager calmly asks how I know. I said I saw the huge black thing with curved tail and there is no doubt it was a scorpion. He says, “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine” and runs up the hill into the jungle night. I stand there thinking, What?
I look around and start to loudly demand that other staff help me. One English speaking cook says not to worry they aren’t lethal bites – they are more like a bee sting and just hurt. I want to believe her but I have never associated scorpions with bees. Several guests inquire about her safety, one well-worn German traveler with Asian themed tattoos across his chest insists these are not harmful. Another couple from India asks if I have Benadryl for her in case she has an allergic reaction. Relieved at something I can do, I get it out of my first aid kit. (Traveler Tip: Always come prepared with your own supply of medications.)
Meanwhile, the manager comes back with a smashed tamarind poultice and wraps it on her foot and tells me in a very calm Thai manner that he has been bit 4 times by black scorpions and not to worry. I look down at his feet and see that he was just walking barefoot through the jungle in the dark. I think to myself, I don’t doubt it then. He tells us tamarind works on all bites to extract the poison and lesson the reaction. His calm manner and no worries sort of attitude is hard to mimic as your adrenaline is pumping, but I try my best to model his behavior.
Jeff returns and after hearing that she will be fine asks the hotel staff what they plan to do about this as we don’t’ want to go back to our room. There are no other rooms for us, but they assemble a cleaning squad and under Jeff’s supervision go and thoroughly shake out the bungalow to ensure no other creatures are hiding under the beds or cabinets.
I weigh our options – get to a hospital to be told the same thing as the staff, guests, and the internet (my Sim Card works now) confirm: that these are not harmful bites. It’s dark, late, raining, and who knows what else we may encounter on our way. I consider checking into another hotel, but again at this hour and with our somewhat remote location there is not really an alternative nearby. After our bungalow was turned upside down to ensure no bugs were anywhere, we decide to go back in. Sleeping was not really an option for me. After leaping onto on the bed from across the room and inspecting the sheets I just lay there next to Janna through the night listening to the frogs and insects of the jungle chirp the night away.
The next day – with the sun shining and a glorious beach awaiting us – we spend the day recovering from our experience. The tattooed German traveler that insisted the bites were harmless told us that we should consider ourselves lucky and perhaps buy a lottery ticket. Getting bit by a scorpion in a hotel happens to one in a million.
Janna was calm and completely focused through the entire experience. The rest of us seemed more traumatized than her. However, it took all of us several days to process and calm down mentally from this experience.
After processing it while recuperating on beautiful Thai beaches, we went into story mode and told other travelers of our adventure. The wide-eyed stares and the colorful exclamations that came after our story helped us to find the humor in it and, more importantly, made this experience something that we controlled and not something that controlled us.
Some friends and family suggested we should have put that scorpion on a stick and taken a bite out of it.
That would come later.
